Let us continue with the beginning

Strangers in the night: king Philip (left), Sabine Laruelle (middle) and Patrick Dewael (right), pictured by belga shortly before 7 pm this evening at the entrance of the palace in the centre of Brussels

 King Philip of Belgium, after three days of consultations with the leaders of the political parties in Belgium (except for the extreme left and right), on Wednesday evening designated Sabine Laruelle and Patrick Dewael  for a mission ‘to make the necessary contacts in order to form a fully operational government’, as the statement from the palace shortly after 19 hours announced. They will report back to the king on Monday the 9th of March.

 Sabine Laruelle (54), is the first women ever to be sent out by the royal palace in a mission to prepare the formation of a government. She lives in Gembloux, a small city on the road from Brussels to Namur, and has a long experience in politics. Having started during 7 years as collaborator of minister Guy Lutgen (the father of present MEP Benoit), she was a minister for the French-speaking liberals in different federal governments between 2003 and 2013, with mainly Agriculture and Economics in her portfolio. Then she withdrew from politics and was active in business until she returned to politics in 2017. Since last year she is president of the Senate, the upper house of the federal parliament (which has kept very few powers after its last reform in 2013).

 Patrick Dewael (64) is an old hand in Belgian politics, having served in different functions at the top for now almost thirty years, for the Flemish liberals. Today he is President of the Chamber, the lower house of the federal Parliament, and mayor of the small city of Tongeren near Liège in the east of the country.

 The king has opted again to send out a duo, with each time both a Flemish and a French-speaking politician. After Johan Vande Lanotte (Flemish socialist) and Didier Reynders (French liberal) during the summer of 2019, there were Geert Bourgeois (Flemish nationalists) and Rudy Demotte (French socialist) in early autumn and Georges-Louis Bouchez (French liberals) and Joachims Coens (Flemish Christian Democrats) around Christmas and New Year. This time two liberals have to try to flatten the terrain.

 In earlier years government negotiations used to start the day after the elections with the King inviting the presidents of Chamber and Senate, which are in the protocol listing nr. 2 and 3 in the country, to ask them for advice. The fact that Philip has chosen for that scenario, seems therefore to express some despair about where to start up the negotiations again, as they failed after 262 days with a splash at the end of last week. Most of the first comments in the media said indeed that this must be seen as a pause to calm down tempers and maybe explore if there might still be another way out before new elections.